Attendance

A Parents' Guide to Attendance

At Mount Pleasant Junior School, we work hard to build effective home school links and believe that working in partnership is vital. Sometimes absence from school is unavoidable: everyone gets ill. By working together we can ensure that absence is kept to a minimum and your child is happy and learning in school.

This information is designed to help parents understand aspects of school attendance, including the systems for reporting absence and the expectations for school attendance, including the consequences and implications of persistent absence and the rewards of good attendance.

Gates open at 08:30

Doors open at 08:40

Register opens at 08:50

Breaktime starts at 10:15
and finishes at 10:30

Lunchtime starts at 12:15
and finishes at 13:00

School finishes at 15:20

The table below describes how we catergorise attendance:

School Attendance Matters!

As a parent or carer it is your lawful duty to ensure that your child regularly attends school. Failing to ensure that your child attends regularly has a number of serious consequences, most importantly:

Your child may not learn enough to succeed in life
Your child may struggle to build and maintain friendships
You could face legal proceedings and criminal prosecution

For more information on Project G Code, pop into the school office for a booklet.

Application for Leave During Term Time

In the rare situation of your child needing to be absent from school during term time, you must make an application to the headteacher.

Forms are available from the school office.

Authorisation will rarely be given as there are few reasons that would validate your child’s absence from school.

Every school day consists of 2 sessions. If a child misses the morning they will still get an attendance mark for the afternoon session if they are in school.

Come in – Make sure that you bring your child to school everyday.

Stay in – Children can often be helped to last the school day, even if they are a little unwell.

If not… Children who are really unwell, need to stay at home, in which case you must always inform us what is wrong with your child and how long their absence is expected to be. This can be easily done in a number of ways for your convenience:

Pop in – Come to the school office and let us know why your child is absent.

Phone in – There is a dedicated messaging service on the school number for you: 023 8022 3634.

Email in – [email protected]

Good attendance means achieving 96% attendance each term of the academic year. This is the same as coming to school for 173 days out of a possible 180

School Absence Penalty Notices 2024/2025- A Parent’s Guide

With the introduction of the new Department of Education National Framework for Penalty Notices, the following changes will come into effect for all Penalty Notices issued due to unauthorised absence that has taken place after 19th August 2024.

Holiday or term time leave should not be taken under any circumstances. Routine appointments should be booked out of school hours whenever possible. In school we have created a booklet to explain more about Project G Code and how long-term absence can affect your children.

Penalty Notice
When will Penalty Notices be issued?	Penalty Notices can be issued when a statutory school-aged child has had 10 sessions (5 school days) or more of unauthorised absence within 10 school week period. Only two penalty notices will be issued to the same parent for the same child within a 3 year period. Also see below.
Who will Penalty Notice be issued to?	A Penalty Notice will be issued to each parent for each absent child. For example, for a family of four the mother would receive 2 penalty notices (1 for each child) and the father would receive 2 penalty notices (1 for each child), totaling 4 penalty notices.
How will Penalty Notices be issued?	All schools in Southampton City Council’s area can request the Council to issue penalty notices. If the school’s request meets the criteria for issue, the penalty notice/s will be issued with a accompanying letter. The penalty notices and accompaying letters are sent via first class post to the recorded home address of each parent.

Unauthorised Absence

10 sessions (5 days) of unauthorised absence can lead to a Fixed Penalty Notice:

If your child’s absence is unnecessary it will not be authorised.
If you do not inform us why your child is absent it will be unauthorised.

Your child should not be absent due to:

Routine dental or medical appointments: schedule appointments for after school or school holidays
Birthdays
Holidays: book holidays during the holidays: a cheaper holiday costs your child’s learning
Head lice—treat and get them in!
Brother or sister is ill—arrange with a friend or relative to bring them in

Research shows that children’s learning is negatively affected if their attendance drops below 96%, which means missing 7 days in an academic year. Therefore we use 96% as the benchmark for good attendance and set this as a target for all our families.

Punctuality

This booklet has been created by the Attendance Ambassadors from Mount Pleasant Schools to explain how lateness impacts on learning and how it makes children feel. Click on the images below to find out more.